Microcamp for Educators
Microcamp for Educators
by JavaRN
Mon May 05, 2008 4:17 pm
As you already know, my full time job is a computer science teacher. I've been teaching programming in different languages for the past 15 years, and this year I wanted my students to have a different programming experience with the microcamp activity kit. Since these kits are inexpensive and our school is a small school with a limited budget then these were my only choice and I don't regret it. From the educational side they offer a lot - It's a good excuse to make my students learn another language besides Pascal and Java, and also discuss with them things that we do in theory but we never practice (ADC converters, digital vs analogue quantities, sensors, etc), besides it is a different activity than the normal "code->compile->run->debug" cycle that we do in class.
Today it was my first lesson, there are at least four more sessions on this topic. Today we started off with a simple discussion on micro-controllers and how they are different from a PC's CPU and we started experimening with moving the robot backwards and forwards, and making it go in circles. On Thrusday I have the second lesson - looking forward for it.
In the meantime if there is other teachers may be following this forum I will be willing to discuss or hear what they have to say, especially if you already went through this.
Charles
Today it was my first lesson, there are at least four more sessions on this topic. Today we started off with a simple discussion on micro-controllers and how they are different from a PC's CPU and we started experimening with moving the robot backwards and forwards, and making it go in circles. On Thrusday I have the second lesson - looking forward for it.
In the meantime if there is other teachers may be following this forum I will be willing to discuss or hear what they have to say, especially if you already went through this.
Charles
F'dan il-passatemp ghandek bzonn zewg affarijiet - FLUS u HIN. Zewg affarijiet li huma skarsi hafna u li jien minnhom ghandi vera ftit!
by JavaRN
Thu Jun 12, 2008 4:15 pm
Yes in actual fact I ended a three week topic (four hours of lessons in all) with my groups. Students age group was 14-15. The lessons were very interesting and in my opinion the microcamp robots are excellent - and with a modest budget I managed to meet my objectives.
During the course the students had two projects - one was a line following project where they had to write a general line following algorithm (based on the one found in the manual, but modified for sharp turns) and the second project a maze solving algorithm using IR sensors. Students took videos of their robot's performance and they should post it on youtube in a couple of days.
During the course the students had two projects - one was a line following project where they had to write a general line following algorithm (based on the one found in the manual, but modified for sharp turns) and the second project a maze solving algorithm using IR sensors. Students took videos of their robot's performance and they should post it on youtube in a couple of days.
F'dan il-passatemp ghandek bzonn zewg affarijiet - FLUS u HIN. Zewg affarijiet li huma skarsi hafna u li jien minnhom ghandi vera ftit!
by PedroR
Fri Jul 10, 2009 5:31 pm
Hi JavaRN
In the context of this post, we have a new kit from the same company that manufactures the Microcamp which is the POPbot - an Arduino based wheeled robot kit.
Check here http://robosavvy.com/store/advanced_sea ... rds=popbot
The kit is similar to Microcamp but it is based on ATMEGA168 and comes with the Arduino bootloader.
It is slightly more expensive than Microcamp since the POPbot comes with more parts and accessories to cover additional subjects.
We do believe it poses an excellent opportunity for teaching.
Arduino is now very big as a platform and we're confident that using it will have students learning with the latest trend in technology.
Regards
Pedro.
In the context of this post, we have a new kit from the same company that manufactures the Microcamp which is the POPbot - an Arduino based wheeled robot kit.
Check here http://robosavvy.com/store/advanced_sea ... rds=popbot
The kit is similar to Microcamp but it is based on ATMEGA168 and comes with the Arduino bootloader.
It is slightly more expensive than Microcamp since the POPbot comes with more parts and accessories to cover additional subjects.
We do believe it poses an excellent opportunity for teaching.
Arduino is now very big as a platform and we're confident that using it will have students learning with the latest trend in technology.
Regards
Pedro.